As an actress, the daughter of Oscar-winner Sissy Spacek has had roles in critically acclaimed, if small, movies, such as the 2002 MTV film “Orange County” and the 2006 comedy “I’m Reed Fish,” in which she played, of all things, a singer.

As a singer-songwriter, she had a debut album, 2009’s “The Good Stuff,” that hit No. 1 on the iTunes folk chart, and had her song “Paperweight” used in the movies “The Last Kiss” and last year’s Amanda Seyfried film “Dear John.”

These days, Fisk has both a new movie, the Gus Van Sant-directed “Restless,” set for release this spring, and a new album, “Blue Ribbon Winner,” which drops March 1. She’s now supporting the disc with a tour that stops March 4 at Tin Angel in Philadelphia.

Schuyler Fisk

One could argue that both acting and music seem to be in the blood of Fisk, 28.

The acting lineage is clear. Her earliest roles were in Spacek’s film “The Long Walk Home” and her director father Jack Fisk’s “Daddy’s Dyin’ … Who’s Got the Will,” both in 1990, before she starred in 1995’s “The Baby-Sitters Club.”

But Fisk (her first name’s pronounced “Sky-ler”) says she also got her music ability from Spacek.

In a recent telephone call from Hollywood, where she was riding in a car, to promote a show March 4 at Tin Angel in Philadelphia, Fisk talked about her new album, her new film, her career and her mom.

Here is a transcript of the call:

LEHIGH VALLEY MUSIC: I’m going to give you the opportunity to tell me about your new album, “Blue Ribbon Winner,” due out March 1. What does the album represent? How did it come to be?

FISK: “When I made ‘The Good Stuff,’ my first record, I feel like I’d been waiting my whole life to make a full-length record, so there was a lot of anticipation and I felt like I had a lot to prove on that record. I love that record a lot, but I feel like that was just a completely different experience. For this record, I wanted to be more about just kind of forgetting about the fact that I was making a record and just worry about having fun making music, and then kind of see what we came up with.

“So that was the whole idea for this record, and I took a couple of months and went back to Virginia, right near where I grew up, and we just wrote and recorded the whole record. And I think there’s something about the fact that I recorded it back there where I grew up. It just has this Virginia feel to me. I think there’s a lot of my Virginia roots that come out on this record. So I’m just really proud of it. I think there’s a good energy on the record, just because it was such a fun record to make.” (Continued)

“I think I’ve grown musically, just because a few years have passed. But I definitely think that it’s maybe a little more eclectic. I was influenced a lot by just so many different genres of music for this record, and I really didn’t overthink the fact that I was being inspired by so many different genres, you know? [Laughs] I was just like, ‘We’re going to go with it.’ But I think there is definitely a link that brings all those genres together on this record. I mean, there’s a lot of Tom Petty influence stuff. And I listened to a lot of Feist during the making of this record. I listened to a lot of old school country like Patsy Cline and Conway Twitty and I listened a lot of Wilco. And actually a lot of Motown [Laughs]. I got some horns in there.”

Wow. Speaking of country, I see you were at the CMA awards ceremony back in November with your mom.

“Yeah, I was. That was awesome. It was fun to be there for the tribute to Loretta [Lynn]. She’s so awesome, and just some of my favorite moments of that whole being at the CMA Awards was just being backstage with Loretta [laughs] and just the funny comments that would come out of her mouth. She’s so real. She doesn’t worry about being perceived a certain way or anything, she’s just who she is. I love it. So that was really fun – I had a blast. I met my mom when she was rehearsing the presenting of the award to Loretta and it was so neat, ‘cause I got to see some of the rehearsals. I got to see Gwyneth [Paltrow] rehearsing her ‘Country Strong’ song and I got to see Miranda Lambert sing and it was just really neat to see that side of it – these artists that are actually real people and they were getting nervous. You know, it was cool. It all seemed like real music – the real music business.”

Sorry I got off on that tangent, but you had mentioned the country music awards. Let me get back to your album: The choice that it comes out on your own label. Tell me about that. At some point yo left Universal Records.

“I was with Universal for a few years and they were sweet to me, and they certainly opened a lot of doors for me – I got to meet a lot of really talent producers and writers and I learned a lot about writing, I think, during those years. But kind of when it came down to it, they weren’t ready to allow me to make a record. And I just felt like at that time I was really ready and I just felt like a lot was changing in the music business and there was a way for me to actually put my record out through iTunes and Amazon. And so I just decided to do that. And they were gracious enough to let me out of my deal, which I’m still very thankful for [laughs].

“And I had a really great experience releasing that on my own, and so decided to do that for this record. And what excites me so much about the music business now is that it give artists a lot more control, and it gives listeners – the people that are buying the music – more control. It’s not about us just kind of listening to what we hear on the radio. It’s about being able to explore your different artists through the Internet and through iTunes and through things like Facebook. And so, yeah, it just seemed like it was kind of the way to go for me.”

Is there going to be a physical release of your disc, or is it only digital?

Actors Colin Hanks, left, and Fisk, center, and director JakeActors Kasdan, appear on the set of "Orange County"

“Well right now there will be a physical release via Amazon, as far as I know. But I don’t know if right off the bat it will be in record stores. But I think we kind of working on that right now.”

And the release date is still March 1?

“March 1! Yup, and I’ll have physical CDs also, for sale, at all my shows.”

OK. So going back – your first album comes out, it actually goes to No. 1 on iTunes, and then two years between that and this. The two years – I really, I really need to know what happened during that time. You played shows?

“Yeah, I got to tour a lot for ‘The Good Stuff. ‘ I got to actually do a really fun tour in Japan. My record actually was released in stores in Japan, which was really neat. ‘Cause it wasn’t actually in stores in the states. So I went over there [Laughs] and I went into every single record store I saw, and there was my record -- on listening stations and it was pretty awesome. It was a really neat moment for me.

“So yeah, I did touring, I did a lot of stuff on soundtracks, and then I actually got to shoot a film with Gus Van Sant, which was a really cool experience. And then, of course, I’ve been writing, and then recording, getting this new record off the ground. That’s what I’ve been doing.”

So tell me a little about the movie coming out. It’s “Restless,” right?

“Yeah, it’s called ‘Restless,’ and it was a screenplay written by this guy Jason Lew, directed by Gus Van Sant and Mia Wasikowska is the lead. And it’s really a story about … It’s a coming-of-age story about two kind of … I’m trying to think – the studio has told me all these things I’m not allowed to say. It’s a coming-of-age story with special circumstances [Laughs]. That’s what I’ll say. But it’s really beautiful. I play the older sister of Mia, and I’m kind of a – almost like a mother figure, because our mother has kind of been … she’s alcoholic, I guess. And it was just a really wonderful experience. We filmed in Portland, Oregon. We were up there for a few months.

“Working with Gus was so different from than any other film I’ve ever worked on [Laughs] He’s very, he’s just like this quiet genius. There’s so much going on behind his eyes, and he just has this confidence. He’s so relaxed, but you’re like, ‘Oh.’ Then the whole crew’s relaxed because no one’s stressing out. It was a really just easy, fun experience.”

So help me sort this out. Obviously your mother’s an actress, you grow up in that environment. Where does the musical influence come in and how do you decide to balance the careers? And how do you do it?

“Good question. My mom, she grew up in this small little Texas town and she taught me the guitar. But music’s been a huge part of her life and became part of my life. Growing up we listened to a lot of great music – The Beatles, The Stones, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, we listened to Tom Petty and she would always pick me up from school and we’d just drive and just listen to music and sing. She’s always harmonize, and I remember being like, ‘Mom! How do you do that? I want to learn to do that!’ She’d be like, ‘You do it. You’ll be able to do it one day. You just have to start trying. You gotta just find it.’ And I was like, [in desperate voice] I’m never going to be able to do that!’

“And then I remember one day I would just try to harmonize with the radio, and one day it clicked. Like, ‘I did it!’ [Laughs] And now it’s my favorite thing to do. I just wish there could be two of me on stage so I could harmonize to myself when I’m playing a show. [Laughs]”

So how do you decide when to put your efforts into a movie and when to put your efforts into music? Or do they co-exist? How does that work?

“Yeah. I don’t really have some master plan with that. I kind of just go with what happens to be going for me at that time. With ‘Restless,’ it was like this great project came up, and I got an opportunity to audition for it and I got the part. So that was a no brainer – of course I was going to go do that. And then in the meantime, I’ve just been working on this record, and now it’s coming out, so I’m focusing on that. So I’m just trying to stay creative and stay busy and go with whatever seems to be going for me. I don’t really have a schedule worked out [Laughs]. Just kind of let it work itself out.”

Do you have any contact with Joshua Radin these days? [Singer-songwriter Radin, her former boyfriend, helped get her music career started by introducing her music to actor/producer Zach Braff]

“You know, not too much lately. But he seems to be doing really, really well and I know he’s had a lot of success in the U.K., so I’m really happy for him.”

The reason I ask – he played here on Valentine’s Day, at The Trocadero in Philadelphia.

“Cool.”

Anything else you want to say?

“I have this tour with Harpen Blynn. They play on the title track of my record, ‘Blue Ribbon Winner,’ and they’re an incredible band from Brooklyn. I’m really excited about that. And I’m really excited about every one hearing my new record.”

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.